Minister Lal Chand Kataria falsely named in murder case: Ashok Gehlot

JAIPUR: Chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Wednesday came out in full defence of the newly appointed union minister of state for rural development Lal Chand Kataria, who has been charged of shielding the accused in a murder case and later organising a lethal assault on the deceased's son.

A school owner in Jaipur, Rajendra Prasad Chaudhary whose father Banshidhar was murdered in June last year, has been fighting a legal battle against Kataria for the past more than six months alleging that the Jaipur rural MP was providing political patronage to the killers. Demanding a CBI probe on the parliamentarian's alleged involvement in the murder, Chaudhary filed petitions before the high court and the Supreme Court, which issued notices to the state government a day after Kataria was sworn as a union minister on Sunday.

"Kataria has been falsely named in the FIR. There is no strength in the allegations and these are a result of personal vendetta," chief minister Ashok Gehlot told reporters on Wednesday, suggesting that the 'disappointed elements' within the Congress could be building a controversy around the newly appointed union minister.

Kataria's staff, meanwhile, told TOI that the minister would reply to the allegations in Jaipur on Thursday.

Chaudhary, however, said a fair probe was possible only if Kataria were removed as minister until the investigations were over. "Even as an MP he managed to shied the killers. Now when he has become a union minister, he will definitely have greater influence on the police investigation," Chaudhary alleged at a press conference on Wednesday.

Chaudhary posted the complaints against Kataria to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday when the apex court issued notices seeking a reply from the state government within four weeks.

Business rivalry between Jaipur rural MP Kataria and deceased Banshidhar is said to be the reason behind the latter's murder committed on June 5, 2011. "My father owned the Ridhi Sidhi Vinayak Nursing School in Kalwad and Kataria too owns a group of schools in the neighbourhood. The Jaipur MP nursed a business rivalry against my father," Chaudhary alleged.